{"id":107007,"date":"2025-10-07T16:45:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/107007\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T16:45:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T16:45:07","slug":"jared-leto-plays-empathetic-ai-in-buggy-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/107007\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Leto Plays Empathetic AI in Buggy Upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere\u2019s more than one paradox built into the program of \u201cTron: Ares<\/a>.\u201d Whereas the original 1982 Disney film on which it was based felt ahead of its time \u2014 both conceptually and in terms of its then-cutting-edge visual effects \u2014 Sean Bailey\u2019s latest attempt to franchise-ify the \u201cTron\u201d brand reads mostly as an exercise in nostalgia. Like lead actor Jared Leto<\/a>\u2019s high-def cheekbones, it looks great, but the movie is saddled with callbacks to the earlier film (and the 1980s at large) that suggest it\u2019s aimed more at Gen X than the Alpha kids who could launch the property into the future.<\/p>\n

\n\tDirected by Joachim R\u00f8nning<\/a>, who previously made overcomplicated sequels to \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d and \u201cMaleficent\u201d for the company, \u201cTron: Ares\u201d introduces two great ideas. The first feels alarmist: What if things conceived in the virtual realm (what\u2019s known as \u201cthe Grid\u201d) could be transferred over to the real world? So, instead of Jeff Bridges\u2019 character, Kevin Flynn, disappearing into the digital arena, all those sleek vehicles and fancy Programs (like Leto\u2019s Ares) could be 3D printed into existence.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhere that much feels trite in its fear of the direction technology is taking us, the second theory is a refreshing alternative to the kind of anti-innovation hysteria that fuels so many sci-fi movies: What if AI could actually be a force for good? Or, as Encom CEO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) puts it, \u201cWhat if its major malfunction is just benevolence?\u201d The villain in \u201cTron: Ares\u201d is not Ares \u2014 the new Master Control security software designed to defend the Grid \u2014 but his creator, Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), the unscrupulous head of a rival tech company who\u2019s trying to develop Ares as an (artificially) intelligent, obedient, fully expendable super-soldier.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough Leto looks cool as Ares with his dark Thor beard and long, slicked-back hair \u2014 everything in \u201cTron\u201d is meant to look cool, and most of it succeeds \u2014 the part requires the actor to dial down the humanity to such a degree that he reads like a Manichean mannequin: almost one-dimensional in a film that makes increasingly sophisticated use of 3D technology. (See \u201cTron: Ares\u201d in stereoscopic 3D if you can, as R\u00f8nning clearly recognizes the potential of the format. He also makes the most of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross\u2019 bassy electro score, attributed here to their band, Nine Inch Nails.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe same goes for his second-in-command, Athena. In that role, \u201cQueen & Slim\u201d star Jodie Turner-Smith seems to be channeling Grace Jones: confident, fierce and devoid of emotion, on the surface at least. Unlike \u201cTerminator,\u201d which introduced Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s character au naturel, \u201cTron: Ares\u201d keeps flesh and feelings largely hidden from view (this is Disney we\u2019re dealing with, after all). Ares, Athena and the other Programs appear in skin-tight black bodysuits, with luminescent red or blue accents, according to which company they work for: Dillinger or Encom, respectively.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a demonstration to military clients, Julian uses bright scarlet lasers to render Ares and an intimidating swat truck in his private hangar. \u201cConjure\u201d might be a better word for it, since there\u2019s a strict 29-minute cap on how long anything brought over from the Grid can last in the real world before it disintegrates. For his business plan to work, Julian needs to find the \u201cpermanence code,\u201d a hack Flynn hid somewhere before his disappearance, presumably to protect people from just the kind of technology Dillinger Corporation is developing.<\/p>\n

\n\tWearing a visored helmet and blue-and-white snowsuit (in stark contrast with Ares\u2019 more Daft Punk-looking red-and-black motorcycle gear), Eve is actually the first one to find the permanence code, which she wants to use for good. With it, she can render crops to feed the hungry and houses for all that need them, whereas Dillinger wants only power and profits.<\/p>\n

\n\tTherein lies another of the film\u2019s paradoxes: \u201cTron: Ares\u201d preaches charity, but as with 2010\u2019s \u201cTron: Legacy\u201d (in which Flynn\u2019s son essentially pirated his company\u2019s OS in an act of anticorporate activism), the reason the film exists is because Disney sees the profit opportunity in unnecessary sequels \u2014 to the extent that this one ends by introducing a series of nonsensical loose ends for some future movie to deal with, squandering whatever chemistry was brewing between Eve and Ares.<\/p>\n

\n\tArtificial intelligence is so easily corrupted in the \u201cTron\u201d movies that Julian should know better than to place so much autonomy in Ares\u2019 hands (his mother, played by Gillian Anderson, clearly understands as much). His new Master Control starts to rebel almost immediately, resenting that Julian treats him as \u201c100% disposable.\u201d That calls to mind another kid-targeted \u201980s movie, \u201cShort Circuit,\u201d or Brad Bird\u2019s far better \u201cThe Iron Giant,\u201d in which war machines disobey their programming.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe should consider ourselves grateful that screenwriter Jesse Wigutow wasn\u2019t forced to invent a child character for Ares to befriend, trusting instead in a grown-up relationship between Eve and Ares. Technically speaking, Ares has an infant\u2019s emotional maturity at first, but swiftly develops empathy and other sophisticated feelings. The script references both \u201cFrankenstein\u201d and \u201cPinocchio,\u201d offering a more pertinent exploration of those two archetypes (vis-\u00e0-vis the rise of AI, at least) than Guillermo del Toro\u2019s recent adaptations of both books \u2014 if only the film were more committed to Ares\u2019 existential journey.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs president of production at Disney, Bailey effectively pillaged the company\u2019s back catalog (he was responsible for so many of those live-action remakes, franchise reboots and theme park adaptations). While it was exciting to see what \u201cTron\u201d might look like in the 21st century, the brand gets in the way of Ares\u2019 internal evolution. However fascinating it might be to watch him \u201clevel up,\u201d what audiences expect \u2014 and what R\u00f8nning delivers \u2014 are cycle races and dynamic gladiator battles.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new, wider Light Skimmers look amazing racing through real city streets, while the sight of a red-trimmed Recognizer hovering toward Encom Tower is every bit as thrilling as Patrick Jean\u2019s three-minute \u201cPixels\u201d short (released the same year as \u201cTron: Legacy\u201d). But there\u2019s a sense that \u201cTron: Ares\u201d has too much nostalgia to service, from the cobwebby re-creation of Flynn\u2019s arcade-basement office to Bridges\u2019 extended cameo (as a drawling, laid-back Dude who sounds less like Flynn than his \u201cBig Lebowski\u201d character).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe thing Bailey too rarely dared was hatching original IP, where this film might have actually been more effective as a non-\u201cTron\u201d original. After all, Tron himself \u2014 as in Bruce Boxleitner\u2019s character \u2014 is nowhere to be found. Then again, audiences are mostly interested in seeing how Disney has upgraded the franchise in the 15 years since \u201cLegacy,\u201d so maybe it\u2019s best to make like Eve Kim and get with the Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s more than one paradox built into the program of \u201cTron: Ares.\u201d Whereas the original 1982 Disney film…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[261],"tags":[291,289,290,18,19,17,50009,67045,82,50012],"class_list":{"0":"post-107007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-jared-leto","15":"tag-joachim-ru00f8nning","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-tron-ares"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}